Filling of liquid product into containers in a high speed production line involves many variables. Such liquid product may consist of paint, oil, solvents and many others which vary widely in viscosity.
Machinery for filling such containers must be adapted for quick change over from and to gallons and quarts and other standard units of U.S. liquid measure, gallons and quarts and other standard units of British Imperial liquid measure, and liters and dekaliters and other standard units in the metric system of measures. Liquids of different viscosities measure differently than each other. For instance, in measuring with a reciprocating pump, in order to obtain a full U.S. gallon measure of thick paint, the stroke length of the piston must be changed after using the same pump to measure a full gallon of wood stain.
Other prior apparatus have been used for changing the stroke lengths of the measuring pump. Stops have been utilized, and a number of such stops have been incorporated into a turret-like control, but such an arrangement has a very limited number of quantity adjustments -- only 4 or 6 positions on the turret.